‘The uncertainty was the biggest challenge. So this is good progress,” says Andrew Lynas, of the new deal struck on Monday between the UK and EU to try to end the dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol.
For the managing director of Lynas Foodservice, a family-run firm from Coleraine, the post-Brexit trade agreement has caused severe headaches. But what he sees as far more important than the reams of additional paperwork, costs and severed relationships with English suppliers is the lifting of the political storm.
“Stability and certainty are big ticks for us as business. At least if our suppliers – whether they’re in Birmingham or France – know what the reality of dealing with us is about, then we can move forward.”
After Rishi Sunak and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed on the new “Windsor framework” update to trading rules on Monday, businesses from across Northern Ireland broadly welcomed progress being made.
In a statement, the region’s 14 largest business groups praised the “considerable efforts” of both sides, while calling on them to continue to work together to help businesses adjust.
Lynas Foodservice is perhaps the perfect case study for the breakdown in trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK; it is the largest family-owned food supplier on the island of Ireland, sending more than 3,000 deliveries a day to pubs, cafes and restaurants within the region, as well as to Scotland and the Irish republic.
Costs and complexity of doing business have soared since Boris Johnson’s 2020 Brexit deal, which – despite promises to the contrary – led to some checks on goods arriving from Great Britain. “There are a couple of people in this business who exist because of that complexity and paperwork,” Lynas says.
“There was a cost, and fear of ‘how do I deal with a Northern Irish supplier?’ and if it [might] change in a few months.”
However, the company, which has 700 staff and a turnover of £180m a year, has worked its way through the headaches, while Lynas says compromise, minimising tensions and a functioning society are far more important. “We’ve had much worse battles in Northern Ireland than the protocol, unfortunately, so we’ve figured out how to deal with it,” he says.
“The biggest thing for me is we need Stormont up and running. As a businessman, as someone in society, we just need a functioning government. I just hope and pray that’s what we get out of this.”
“Common sense has now prevailed,” says Michael McGrath, the owner of Crushing Screening Parts, a small business that sells car parts from rural County Derry to countries around the world. “Thank God the grownups are back in 10 Downing Street. It’s been a long-running saga of dispute, and dissent, and arguments, and fallouts that has helped no one.”
He says his business has benefited from the protocol, by keeping Northern Ireland effectively within the EU single market for goods. “Northern Ireland Protocol Sales to UK and EU remain tariff free” reads a banner on his email signature, expressing a feeling that is shared by many, but not all, business people.
“I don’t think much changed. As long as there is no change in access to the single market, the rest is just noise.”
Declan Gormley, the managing director of Brookvent – which exports hundreds of ventilation products from its base in Belfast to the Irish republic, the rest of the UK and the EU – is of a similar view. “For some people it’s anathema. But the truth is, we do have the best of both worlds,” he says.
“We’re continuing our relationship with the UK, and with the EU market. We’ve grown significantly over the last decade by the ability to access the EU and to be able to expand into Poland, and other countries. It’s worked very well for us.”
Smoothing the region’s troubled political waters is, however, a key priority, made possible recently by “a much more concerted effort” in Westminster and Brussels to overcome obstacles. “Previously we had prime ministers turning up and promising no checks, or telling people they’d tear the deal up and put in the bin. All of that was completely misleading and gave people a completely wrong perspective,” Gormley says.
“We want a good relationship with our neighbours, whether in England, Scotland and Wales, or in Europe. It doesn’t help anyone to have an antagonistic relationship.”
What is certain, however, is that there is still progress to be made. Business leaders from the 14 leading industrial groups say details of the Windsor agreement will still need to be pored over, while bosses said the reaction of the DUP will be important.
“With Northern Ireland being Northern Ireland, I could wake up tomorrow and say to you: ‘Everything we talked about? Forget it.’ You just don’t know,” Gormley says.
“But I’m hopeful we’re now on a path to some form of a resolution that everyone can feel they’ve got something out of, and can move on to more positive things.”
